Never Enough Time

By Linda Chamberlain

Janan's head smashed into the dashboard and then her whole body rebounded.  When Eddie finally reached Janan with his trembling hands, her gray business suit was warm and wet with blood.The world returned to real time for Eddie.  His ears suddenly flooded with the scream of a car's horn, blaring relentlessly behind his own cries, "Janan!  Janan!" Janan did not answer.  She was limp and lifeless.

Eddie touched Janan's throat and thought, hoped, begged the universe to let the faint quiver in her neck be life still flowing in her arteries and not just be his own trembling. Eddie opened his car door, pulled himself from under the steering wheel and ran for the restaurant. Slamming through the entrance, Eddie ran into a couple just leaving.  Wasting no time to apologize, he pushed past them and bolted through the restaurant, ignoring the complaints of diners who were ruffled by his mad sprint. Eddie stopped, panting, at the pay phone in the rear of the restaurant.

Picking up the receiver, Eddie deposited a coin.  No dial tone!  He jabbed at the button several times.  Terror was rising in his chest as he turned and ran to the bar. They'd have a phone at the bar.  They had to!

Eddie pushed a waitress aside, oblivious to her grumbling, and shouted at the bartender, "Your phone!  Its an emergency!  I need your phone!" "There's a pay phone in the back, Buddie," the bartender was visibly annoyed by what he considered to be just another drunk.

"It's out of order, you..."  Eddie's face turned red. "There's been a terrible accident.  In the parking lot.  My friend is dying.  I need your phone!"

The bartender seemed to be deaf.  He just peered out of his eye sockets like a puppet who could not move without having his strings pulled.  Eddie stared at the bartender helplessly.      "There's a phone at the gas station.  Across the street."

Eddie looked over his shoulder in the direction of the voice.  The waitress he had just elbowed away from the bar shifted her weight as the peeved look on her face softened into something more like compassion.

Looking right, then left, Eddie spotted the gas station.  It was half a block away.  Three pay phones stood like sentinels on the corner of the lot.

Jumping into the busy street, Eddie dodged cars and ignored insults, as he made his way through the horns and irate drivers to the other side of the street.  When safely on the opposite curb, Eddie broke into a full run, cursing his out-of-condition body as he huffed and wheezed and wished he could go faster.  The telephone booths seemed an eternity away.

Eddie finally came to a stop.  Out of breath as much from terror as from the run, he put a coin into the pay phone.  A dial tone!  His fingers would not hold still.  Eddie squeezed the receiver to make the trembling stop and put his other hand in his pocket. When he heard the voice on the other end of the phone, he felt his anxiety ease a little.

"California Life Extension Foundation." Walt?"  Eddie sounded like he was in shock. "Eddie?  What's wrong?" "A terrible accident, Walt.  Janan's hurt."  Eddie's voice cracked.  "She may be..."  Eddie couldn't finish. "Have you called an ambulance yet?" Walt asked. "No, you're the first one I called.""Where are you?" "At the Villa Roma on Third Street." "Okay, Eddie.  I'll call the ambulance.  You go back and stay with Janan until they get there."

"They may need some heavy equipment to cut into the car." "Okay," said Walt, "I'll tell them.  I'll get the rescue team together and meet you at the hospital."  Walt paused for a second and then added, "You know... she doesn't have her arrangements in order?"

"I know.  We were going to fill out papers after dinner." "I'll bring a sign-up package, Eddie, but if she deanimates before she can sign the papers..."  Walter's voice trailed off.

"I know," said Eddie, his voice cracking again. "Get back to Janan," said Walt.  "I'll see you at the hospital. When Eddie got back to Janan, she still seemed to be breathing.  He could only reach her from the driver's side of the car; her side of the car was crushed by the still invading black monster.

Eddie crawled into the red Toyota and checked Janan's pulse. It was almost too faint to find.  Tilting Janan's head back to help her breath, Eddie caressed her chestnut hair. Eddie thought he heard a faint moan, but he could not be sure.  "Don't die," Eddie pleaded.  "We need time to get your papers filled out."  Eddie touched Janan's throat again and looked around to see if there was any sign of the ambulance.

Through the side window Eddie could see the waitress from the bar.  A crowd was beginning to form.  People whispered and pointed, but no one offered to help.

What's the matter with these people, wondered Eddie. They're all going to die, so maybe they actually hope Janan will die too.  Sour grapes.  The thought was too morbid for Eddie; he closed his eyes to shut it all out.  The pounding in his chest was growing.

The sound of a siren and the flashing of red and blue lights saved Eddie from collapsing.  Maybe they would make it!  Maybe they would disappoint the crowd outside the window.

It was only minutes before they arrived at the hospital, though it seemed like hours to Eddie.  As Eddie watched the paramedics prepare to unload Janan's stretcher, he saw a priest walking out of the emergency room doors.

An idea burned in Eddie's mind. "Wait!  Sir!" Eddie hailed the priest as he ran toward him. "Wait.  Please!"  The old priest looked up, startled by the urgency in Eddie's bloodshot eyes. "Please.  You've got to marry us," Eddie said, pointing at Janan's stretcher.  "She's dying.  You've got to marry us."

The old priest seemed to be made of stone.  Eddie took him by the arm and started after Janan and the paramedics.  "Thank you," Eddie said.  "Thank you."  The white haired priest followed.

Eddie leaned over and whispered into Janan's ear.  "Janan, you have to marry me.  Just in case.  That would make me the next of kin.  Authority to have you frozen.  Say yes, Janan.  Tell the priest you want to marry me."Janan lay lifeless on the stretcher. The priest looked at Eddie.  "I'm sorry, Son.  If she's unconscious, I can't marry you.  She has to consent." The paramedics began to push the stretcher toward the emergency room doors.

"Wait!"  Eddie held onto the stretcher, panic in his eyes. "Son," said the white haired priest as he laid a fatherly hand on Eddie's shoulder, "let them take her to emergency.  I'll marry you later, if she lives."

"But what if she dies?" "If she dies, the marriage won't be necessary."

"No, you don't understand."  It took all of Eddie's will to keep his voice respectful.  Eddie turned back to Janan.  Leaning over the stretcher, he tried again.  "Janan.  I love you.  You have to tell the priest you'll marry me.  Please, Janan.  Tell him.  Please."Janan barely opened her eyes.  Her lips trembled as she tried to form words.  It was almost inaudible, but Janan managed two words:  "Yes, Eddie."

Nearly twenty four hours later, Walt Hamilton, president of the California Life Extension Foundation, walked into the reception area adjoining the operating room inside the Foundation's facility.  Eddie stood, looking anxious, when he saw his friend enter.  Walt was dressed in hospital greens.

Walt pulled off his face mask and gown and threw them into a laundry depository as he walked toward Eddie.  "Janan's suspension went well, Eddie.

Walt sat down and placed a hand on Eddie's shoulder.  "If you hadn't been with her, and if you hadn't gotten that priest to marry you, there wouldn't have been anything we could have done. Without the legal documents, our hands would have been tied."

"Yeah," Eddie said, his voice as swollen as his eyes. "Walt, I want to make sure something like this never happens again."

"What do you have in mind? "I don't know.  But we've got to make sure, Walt." Walt nodded.  "I never could understand why Janan let her arrangements drop. Eddie took the gold medic alert bracelet from his pocket and held it in the palm of his hand.  "I asked her why," said Eddie, "just before the accident.  She said there just never was enough time."  Eddie's voice choked again.  "Now there really isn't."

Eddie laid the bouquet of red roses atop the dewar which had cradled Janan for almost a year.  "Well, Love," Eddie said with a sad smile, "it's our first anniversary." Reaching down, Eddie touched one of the roses.  "I miss you," he said, his lips trembling, "but better this way than to have lost you forever.  It was just a matter of minutes, you know."

Shifting his weight, Eddie waited for the lump in his throat to go down.  "I've set up a special fund.  We call it the Janan Fossbender Fund.  After you were suspended, I swore I would find a way to keep something like this from ever happening again."

"We," Eddie lost his voice for a second.  "We really go all out these days to be sure our members keep their arrangements current."  Eddie did his ridiculous imitation of James Cagney, "We're ruthless, Lady, when it comes to getting what we want."

Eddie fell silent and closed his eyes for a moment.  Then he whispered, "Because of you, people will live, now, who might have been lost forever.  You're going to find a lot of them standing there to thank you, when you wake up."Eddie was silent again, holding back his tears.  As he turned to leave, he added, "It's become a battle cry, 'Remember Janan'!"